Using the Forest Tree Models with Toy Soldiers

Bold Frontiers forest tree sets are designed to be used in useful ways with 28-54mm toy soldiers. Think of a forest as a city of buildings, with lots of obstructions for people to move around and through. The trees become an important feature of a game and they can take toy soldier games to new levels of adventure and fun.

Once you start playing with these forest tree playsets, they will become an essential accessory for all your future games with toy soldiers and other game pieces.

Purpose of Forest Tree Models

Bold Frontiers forest tree sets can be set up as solid wilderness interiors, physical barriers, obstacle courses and mazes, background settings, or tree islands. They can also be used to represent forest ruins, hiding architectural ruins or lost cities.

In closely grouped tree set-ups, soldiers can move easily around the trees - especially the small sized tree markers which mark the spot of full size trees. The tops on these smaller models are cropped to enable the players to easily see and move their own figures in a game, without dislodging the trees.

Solid tree trunks and thick foliage provide protective cover while other small bushes can hide the movements of figures lurking nearby.

Forest Tree Screens and Forest Pine Screens (Sets 1 and 2):

These are medium and large size tree models that serve to form tree screens. They represent dense areas of forest with restricted visibility. Their undergrowth provides extra cover for figures.

These tree screens are an effective natural barrier or fortification - rival players will require some extra effort to penetrate this dense cover in pursuit of their enemy.

Also, they can be used to hide the strength and movement of a unit from rival players.

In a structured game with rules, screen trees can be used to slow down the movement of figures needing to pass through them.

Forest Tree Screens - Set 1 (Left); Set 2 (Right)

Forest Tree Markers (Set 3):

The smaller tree markers, shown below, are a cropped version of the Forest Tree Screens in Set 1, pictured above.

Each of these small tree models represents the position of a full-size tree. They can serve as a mini-fortification, providing defensive cover for a small unit or group of figures.

Openings between the tree trunks provide protective cover for figures to shoot firearms or arrows through. With their reduced height, these tree models allow players to easily observe their figures as the battle progresses. Their reduced height makes it easier for players to position their figures.

These smaller trees can be used to show the more open areas of forest with a clearer line of sight for figures (that may only be obstructed by another tree marker). More importantly, these trees ensure that players have a combination of tall and short trees which can make the movement of figures much easier.

Set 3 also includes one fallen tree and a copse (a small grouping of trees). The fallen tree is ideal for kneeling figures and the copse is good for hiding figures behind.

Guidelines for Tree Set Ups

Use tree screens to provide dense foliage that can be used as cover for figures:

Set up the tree screens (Sets 2 and/or 3) at about 7.5cm (3inches) apart so they appear to overlap each other when viewed face on (at 'eye level' of the figures). This tree cover is considered to be too dense to be seen into.

Use tree screens and markers together to create a more challenging and interesting environment:

For best effect, set out the screens and markers (Set 3) at irregular angles from each other, to give the appearance of a maze or obstacle course through which single figures or units can navigate. For instance, sighted units might suddenly disappear and head off in one or more different directions.

To simulate the more open interior of a forest, place the markers behind the screens. Additional screen models may be placed randomly amongst the markers to create a blend of dense and open forest.

Use screens and markers together on a large games area to keep track of figures as they move across the area:

If a large area is filled only with the larger tree screen models, players may find it difficult to move their figures across the games area without disrupting or moving the tree models. Also, they may start losing sight of figures - some may get moved a long way while others may get left behind. This is where forest tree markers become really useful.

When figures are placed in marker sections, between groupings of screens, players can clearly see where the figures are and move them easily from tree to tree as they move into closer contact with an enemy unit.

Suggestions:

You can create different types of tree landscapes by looking at some of the photos in this section and also in our Photo Gallery. You can also use your imagination to do whatever suits your needs.

Solid wilderness interiors

Trees can be used to hide figures or as defensive cover for fighting.

Physical barriers

Trees can be used as natural physical barriers that can add to the atmosphere of the game.

Obstacle courses or mazes

Trees can be massed together in a mazed effect that will challenge players to guide their figures safely through.

Background settings

Trees can be set up as small stands of forest or woods bordering open fields. This can lead to different types of environmental settings and different game scenarios being played out simultaneously in the one game.

Tree islands

Trees can be clusterd as small islands and surrounded by open spaces such as grasslands or fields.

Click on the image to see the caption

Tactical Play with the Model Trees

Contact rules for trees and figures (visibility and safety):

By touching the sides or edges of the tree models, figures can be considered as having disappeared safely within those forested areas for an agreed amount of time. This means that rival players cannot see opposing figures or make an attack on them while they remain there.

Hidden marksmen can fire from the edge of the tree cover by placing figure bases in direct contact against the edges of the screens and tree markers.

While the screens don't have apertures for firing through, a common games trick for hiding figures amongst the trees, even when they are fully visible, is to place the figure bases directly against the sides or edges of the model. The rule here is that the figures cannot be seen until the smoke of their firearms reveals their position, and they are protected by thick tree trunks which they are supposedly hiding behind.

Click on the image to see the caption

Veiled moves:

Veiled moves introduce elements of secrecy and surprise and can give players an advantage over opponents. The following information refers to when a player does not want to reveal the true strenth of his unit to another player.

Only reveal the true strength of a unit when it is ready to engage in a hostile encounter. The sudden appearance of a unit in full force can be more surprising than a cluster of figures whose strength and movements have been exposed and closely observed by rival players during the course of a game.

Use a single token figure to represent a core unit of figures including scouts (fore, aft and flanks). The full strength of a unit can be recorded on paper or with a die (single dice), hidden from common view. This system is particularly relevant to situations where a unit's strength may be increased during the course of a game.

This last procedure also eliminates the clumsiness of moving mass figures and unnecessarily disrupting the scenery.

It streamlines the game and cuts down on time wasted by repositioning groups of figures for normal moves.

Units entering into heavy forest areas (tree screens):

Units can temporarily disappear into the dense areas of screens when the leader of a unit touches, with its base, any part of a large tree screen model or enters into a 7.5 cm gap betwen larger tree models.

Any unit figure that is left behind or in direct contact with an enemy figure could be considered as killed or captured.

Click on the image to see the caption

Hidden moves with the tree screens:

Here are some suggested rules on how to use the tree screens as hidden cover, and how figures can perform inside that cover, using different types of screens.

When several tree screens are placed close together (about 7.5 cm apart and slightly overlapping ) to form a row of dense cover, a unit of figures reaching that cover may remain unsighted for 1 move only, and then they must leave that cover.

When the tree screens are used singly in a forest setting, a unit of figures reachng that cover may remain unsighted for 1 move only, and then they must leave that cover.

When the smaller screen models are used on their own or as an isolated feature, a unit of figures must pass straight through to the other side without stopping: that is, they must move away from the screen on the screen on the next turn.

When leaving or passing through the screens, players can follow these suggestions regarding the use of tokens:

When leaving a screen, a player may exchange 1 unit figure for up to 3 coloured tokens comprising 1 marked token and 2 blank dummy tokens indicating the hidden unit at full strength.

These tokens can be moved simultaneously in various directions to deceive any rival units within that area, for up to 2 moves.

In the picture below, we have only shown 2 dummy markers against the side of the distant screen model to indicate where the hidden figure might be. The blue figure has only moved once before its position is revealed, while the khaki figure has made 2 hidden moves before it has been revealed.

In an actual game, only 1 of these markers might be used to hide the actual movement of a figure, representing a unit of perhaps 4 figures.

Click on the image to see the caption

Escaping through the screens:

Soldiers can disappear safely into the protective cover of the screens by touching the sides or edges of the models.

If a unit is pursued into a screen by a hostile force, it can be detected by an enemy unit by rolling 1 die and geting a score of 6 (1D6, or 1 x 6 sided die). The pursued unit must then leave the screen to make its escape.

The detected unit can make a desperate run by rolling 2D6 and adding 7.5 cm.

Shooting from screens and markers:

Taking the likely deflection of fired arrows or musket balls by undergrowth (small trees and bushes under larger trees) into account, shooting can only be effective at a close and murderous range of, say, up to 15 cm. In colonial North America, it was recognised that 'almost reaching distance' had the most lethal effect in bush fighting.

The tree markers are ideal for skirmish battles, with their apertures for shooting through, and their thick trunks to shoot from behind.

Click on the images to see the captions

To get your imagination working on how you can have fun with our forest tree sets and toy soldiers, as well as your own collection of figures and other game accessories, see our information on wilderness battle tactics and adventure story titles (fact and fiction) that are well written and many of which will have great illustrations in them (e.g. the illustrated histories by Osprey Publishing).